Mumbai, Jan 3 : The domestic benchmark indices opened lower on Friday as selling was seen in the IT, pharma, financial service and FMCG sectors.

At around 9.29 am, Sensex was trading at 79.710.47 after dropping 233.24 points or 0.29 per cent, while Nifty was trading at 24,131.90 after declining 56.75 points or 0.23 per cent.

The market trend remained positive. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 1,256 stocks were trading in green, while 401 stocks were in red.

According to market experts, the uncanny ability of the market to surprise was evident in yesterday's massive 445 point rally in Nifty. Even though FII buying helped in the rally, at Rs 1,506 crore net buying it was not good enough to trigger such a massive 1.8 per cent rally in Nifty.

Nifty Bank was down 43.70 points or 0.08 per cent at 51,561.85. Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 58,275.60 after rising 167.40 points or 0.29 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 19,178.55 after rising 98.20 points or 0.51 per cent.

On the sectoral front, buying was seen in the media, PSU bank, auto, metal, realty and energy sectors.

In the Sensex pack, TCS, ITC, Zomato, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Reliance, L&T, Bajaj Finance and ICICI Bank were the top losers. HCL Tech, SBI, M&M, Adani Ports, Maruti Suzuki and IndusInd Bank were the top gainers.

The Dow Jones declined 0.36 per cent to close at 42,392.27. The S&P 500 declined 0.22 per cent to 5,868.60 and the Nasdaq declined 0.16 per cent to close at 19,280.79 in the last trading session.

In the Asian markets, Jakarta, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Seoul were trading in green while China was trading in red.

"With dollar index at 109.25 and the U.S. 10-year yield at 4.56 per cent the macro construct is not favourable for sustained FII buying," said experts.

FIIs bought equities worth Rs 1,506.75 crore on January 2 and domestic institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 22.14 crore on the same day.

/IANS